How I Made $5,521.62 From One Blog Post

If you’re like most bloggers, the idea of a high ROI from one blog post probably sounds very appealing!

We spend tons of hours writing blog posts, creating great images and promoting our content like crazy, hoping to get people to visit and engage with our posts.

While it’s absolutely important that we do these things, most of the time that effort doesn’t directly lead to profit.

Am I right?

Here’s the good news…

The Good News

When done right and with a little bit of luck, it’s totally possible to make a nice profit just from one blog post.

And to continue to profit from that same blog post, month after month.  Year after year.

Passive income at its best!

I know this because it’s happening for me.  Right now.  As we speak.  Honest!

In the paragraphs that follow, I’m going to break down exactly how I did it.

Let’s start with the general strategy…

The Strategy

In my blog post on how to start an online business with confidence, I mentioned the concept of Ethical Affiliate Marketing.

Ethical Affiliate Marketing means only recommending and promoting products that you investigate personally and would be willing to recommend to friends.

You promote those products as an affiliate and receive a commission when someone clicks through and purchases the product via your affiliate link.

That’s what this strategy is all about.

Let me explain this as a simple 3-Step Strategy that anyone can follow, starting with step one…

1.  Find a Great Product to Recommend

You find a product that has an affiliate program for it.

Then you buy the product with your own money.

Don’t under-estimate the importance of this.  It gives credibility and shows you put your money where your mouth is.

Once you have the product in hand, you try it out for yourself.  You take it through its paces and honestly decide if you like it or not.

If you don’t like it, that’s the breaks.  You don’t promote it.  The end.  Move on to something else.

The Grandma Test

Consider the Grandma test.  Do you like the product so much that you would recommend it to your Grandma?

If yes, then you have a winner!

Now, onto the next step in the strategy…

2.  Write a Complete and Exhaustive Review as a Blog Post

The key here is to write a review of the product and make it the most thorough review ever!

Include images of the product and even videos of yourself using and explaining the product, if you can.

Be sure to cover the pros and cons, the features and benefits, and plenty of descriptive text that paints a picture of the product in someone’s head.

Include the price you paid for the product and your experience as a customer.

Some will disagree with me on this, but don’t put the pre-made ad banners in your post.  Those are the ones the affiliate program gives you.

Just have simple text links in a few places for your affiliate links.

And of course, follow the FTC rules and be sure to disclose your relationship as an affiliate.

In my post on getting started with affiliate marketing, I explain all about that and go deep into affiliate marketing in general.

3.  The Secret Sauce – Get Your Post Google-Ready

This is the step that most people don’t seem to know about for some reason.

Use Google’s keyword planner tool in Search Console and find the keywords that people are using when they search for the product your reviewing.

Then, tweak your blog post so that those keywords are in the text of your review.

You may uncover questions that people have about the product from those keywords.  Be sure to answer those questions in your review.

Don’t stuff the post with keywords.  Just use a few and make sure they sound like normal words that a human would read and understand, using normal grammar.

Also, adjust the title of your blog post to include the main keyword for the product.

And, (this is important) end the post title with the word “Review”.  Most likely, that’s how people are searching for the product review when they type it into the search engines.

Finally, write up a great meta-description that will cause a searcher to want to click on your review in the search engine results.

Hit Publish

Once you have everything together and the post is proofread and ready to go, hit publish.

Promote your blog post as you normally would to your email list and your social media channels.

You’ve done everything you can do and with a little luck and patience with the search engines, hopefully you’ll be on your way to passive affiliate income!

My Profitable Review Post

I’m sure you’re interested in knowing the specifics of what I did.

Don’t worry, here you go…

Aside from this site, I also own and run a site called Honest Wine Reviews.

On that site I review wines and wine clubs.

Most of the reviews are not affiliate related.  I provide those reviews to give value to my readers and to share my wine tasting experiences.

However, there’s one review I did that’s made me $5,521.62 so far (and is still going strong).

Head on over to my site and type “wsj wine club review” in the search bar.  Then click on that post when it comes up and give it a good read.

The Strategy in Action

Now, as promised, let me break down exactly what I did and how I followed the strategy I just laid out for you…

I love the newspaper The Wall Street Journal and always see the ads for their wine club.

I did a little research and discovered that the club has an affiliate program.

I paid out of pocket and bought the club.

I documented my entire experience from the order process all the way to un-boxing the wines and trying them out.

The wines were great!  I shared them with my friends who like wine and they agreed.

My Grandma Test…  Sort Of  😉

Feeling that I could comfortably recommend the club to my readers, I wrote up a comprehensive review with the facts, benefits, pros and cons, features and details about the club.

I included a few affiliate links to the club in the review.

I looked in Google Keyword Planner and found the words people typed when they searched for that club.  Then I tweaked the text and title with those keywords.

Take a look and you’ll see them in the title of the post and sprinkled in the review itself.

I wrote up a good meta-description and hit publish.

I promoted the review to my email list and on my social media channels.

The search engines picked up the review and direct traffic to it.  It’s usually in the top page or two of the search results.  That’s because it’s epic content, includes the right keywords and has developed a few good inbound links over time.

People read the review.  Some click on the affiliate links and go on to make a purchase.

Just about every month I get a direct deposit into my bank account with my commissions from those purchases.  Especially around the holidays which is when people stock up on wine.  Commissions range from $5 – $40 per purchase.

Conclusion

So there you have it!

We covered the 3-Step Strategy and my real-life example of how it’s working for me.

What do you think?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below…